Tifa Lockhart
Tifa Lockhart is one of the female protagonists in the widely-acclaimed video game, Final Fantasy VII. She is Cloud's childhood friend from Nibelheim and a key member of an eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE. However, her personality is much more laid back and selfless in comparison, with a motherly streak concerning all her friends and her attitude to others. Her offical profile describes her as: "Bright and optimistic, Tifa always cheers up the others when they're down. But don't let her looks fool you, she can decimate almost any enemy with her fists..." Personality Tifa is a very shy character, which is perhaps best displayed by her last name, Lockhart. She is quick to hide her true feelings from people, and her shyness is a key aspect of her character, and she is caring and loving to a fault. Tifa doesn't express her feelings often, and she has trouble doing so. She has a strong motherly streak and helps take care of the other AVALANCHE members in her bar, and she also has no compunctions about using her strength to keep rambunctious patrons in line, if what other characters indicate is true. Tifa is also very caring and helps whenever she can. She often comforts the other AVALANCHE members, and is often found spending time with Aeris Gainsborough when the party splits up. Due to the Nibelheim Incident, Tifa bears a deep-seated hatred of Shinra and Sephiroth, and when the Lifestream emerged at the end of Final Fantasy VII, she metaphorically hoped it would absolve her sins, as she feels horribly guilty over the destruction she and AVALANCHE caused. Tifa was made to portray a modern woman who can function without her man, rather than a clingy one. The final portrayal makes Tifa a positive role model and female lead for women around the world. As she was in Final Fantasy VII, on the outside Tifa is a hard worker and spends her time caring for everyone but herself. On the inside, she keeps the feelings of uneasiness towards Cloud locked up. Biography Background Tifa was born in Nibelheim, the same town where Cloud was born. She was out-going, lively, and quickly gained quite a lot of friends. Although she and Cloud lived right next to each other, and were only a year apart, they were never that close. She and the others didn't really know Cloud through most or all of their childhood. Tifa's mother died when Tifa was eight years old, leaving her upset and very confused. Tifa believed her mother had gone to Mt. Nibel, and that she could meet her again if only she crossed the mountain. Tifa headed off to Mt. Nibel, and Cloud followed to keep her safe, but Tifa fell from the rickety bridge in the mountains. Tifa's father arrived at the scene, and finding her hurt, blamed Cloud for leading her to Mt. Nibel. Years later, Cloud decided to become a SOLDIER, like his idol Sephiroth, in part to impress Tifa. He called Tifa out to a local date spot to tell her of his plans, and Tifa made Cloud promise to protect her if she was ever in trouble. He agreed, and left to join SOLDIER the following spring. Afterwards, Tifa constantly worried about him, reading the newspaper every day looking for some mention of Cloud, and asking Shinra personnel if they knew him when they came to Nibelheim, but there never was anything, for Cloud only became an infantryman. Crisis Core/Last Order Two years later at the age of 15, Tifa while working as a tour guide in the Nibelheim mountains, leads an expedition to the Mako Reactor for the SOLDIERs Sephiroth and Zack. Shinra oversees these reactors, which sap energy, or Mako, from the life of the planet to convert into energy for human consumption. During their stay, she drops hints to Zack that she dreams of specifically having a blond-haired SOLDIER protecting her, obviously referring to Cloud. Unbenkownst to her, Cloud happens to be one of two Shinra guards with Zack and Sephiroth, but is hiding his identity due to his embarrassment over his failure to enter SOLDIER. At the reactor, Sephiroth goes berserk when he learns who his mother "Jenova" is, and becomes fully insane. He puts Nibelheim to the torch and razes the town, then sets off to the reactor. Tifa's father and others try to stop him, but Sephiroth kills them. At the reactor, Tifa finds her father's corpse impaled with Sephiroth's sword. Declaring her hatred of him and Shinra, she rushes into the reactor and attacks Sephiroth, but he disarms her and cuts her down. Tifa falls down the steps of the reactor and slumps to the ground, unconscious. After learning of Sephiroth's madness, Zack goes to the reactor and engages Sephiroth in combat, but is defeated. Not long after, Cloud arrives and carries Tifa aside to make sure she will be safe while he fights Sephiroth. Tifa, heavily wounded, would later be carried by her martial arts master Zangan to Midgar for medical treatment. Some point after this Zangan leaves Midgar, and Tifa recovers from her wounds and joins AVALANCHE, an anti-Shinra resistance group led by Barret Wallace. She also becomes the owner and proprietor of the bar and restaurant 7th Heaven, which houses AVALANCHE's base in a secret basement. Final Fantasy VII When Cloud returns to Midgar five years after the incident as a mercenary, he meets Tifa. Unaware that Cloud was at Nibelheim in the past, but suspecting something is off about his behavior, she recruits him to work for Barret in order to keep him close to examine him further. Later realizing Cloud knows several things he shouldn't and has forgotten things he should know, and also initially doubting her own recollections when faced with Cloud's own, Tifa decides to keep this information to herself while she tries to figure out the reason behind Cloud's strangely different character and inconsistent memories. With Cloud in tow, AVALANCHE endeavours to destroy every Mako Reactor to debilitate Shinra and save the Planet. Their priorities are changed, however, when Sephiroth reappears and murders Shinra's President. The group later travels after him to try to stop him from killing the Planet with Meteor in the name of his "Mother". Shinra, under new leadership, try to probve their leadership by executing AVALANCHE as scapegoats to distract the pubic from the threat of Meteor. After escaping Tifa reunites with Cloud in Mideel, only to find him suffering from an overdose of Mako. Tifa stays behind to watch over him, only for Mideel to be shortly afterward swallowed up by Lifestream. Tifa wakes inside Cloud's Subconscious where she uncovers the truth about the Nibelheim incident, and restores Cloud's memories and motivations. Later, in the aftermath of Midgar's siege by Diamond Weapon and the impending chaos of Shinra's destruction, Cloud dismisses the party members, instructing them to find a reason to fight. Tifa stays behind with Cloud, as she had nowhere else to go. The following scene has two possible dialogue courses, the more "canon" one implying a strong romantic connection between Tifa and Cloud. In the game's ending Tifa stays behind to help Cloud as he descends into the Lifestream for a final battle with Sephiroth, and is caught by him as he returns to his own body. The two stay near each other throughout the remainder of the ending. Advent Children After the destruction of Midgar, Tifa and Cloud live together with Marlene (Barret's young daughter) in the newly built city of Edge, where Tifa runs a bar and Cloud runs a delivery service on his new motorcycle. Her life with Cloud is initially happy, but Tifa becomes increasingly concerned with Cloud's secrecy and growing depression, which begins to cause strain. Together with Marlene, Tifa goes to Midgar to look for Cloud and discovers he has contracted Geostigma, a fatal disease. Soon after Loz, a remnant of Sephiroth shows up hoping to find Jenova's head under Cloud's care. Instead, he finds Tifa there, who he begins to duel. Though she puts up a good fight, Tifa is eventually defeated and Marlene is taken. Cloud finds her later, unconscious in the church, and prepares to hunt down Marlene, but is stopped by a bout of pain from his Geostigma. Afterwards Tifa assists Cloud in taking down Bahamut SIN, which one of the remnants of Sephiroth had summoned. She also dispatches some of the Shadow Creepers singlehandedly. She later watched from the airship as Sephiroth battle Cloud once more, convincing the other members to refrain from interfering, saying it was Cloud's fight. Upon his victory she is seen sharing a shy smile with him in the Church. Dirge of Cerberus One year afterward Tifa appears to assist in the assault on Deepground, riding into the front lines in a tank with Barret. Upon their defeat she goes back to running her bar, in which he is visited often by the other members. Fighting Capacity Having been trained by the master martial artist Zangan since she was young, Tifa is quite a proficient hand-to-hand combatant. Her job class is that of the Monk, meaning she has physical strength values. They also are known for their ability to counter physical attacks. Final Fantasy VII has a system in which a character is able to access special attacks over time, called Limit Breaks. Tifa has a total of seven Limit Breaks, the strongest being "Final Heaven". In Advent Children she was displayed as being fully capable of taking on a large, super-human man on her own without any materia, only to be eventually defeated through the use of a taser and materia. Originally she had been considered as the most powerful physical fighter in Dead Fantasy II, capable of taking on all of the Dead or Alive girls while exhausted and using Potion bottles as her only weapons. That title is now in question due to her recent loss against Hitomi, and with the inclusion of male characters. Weapon :Aside from martial arts, Tifa comes equipped with a variety of Materia. Materia are items in Final Fantasy VII that allows a character to cast spells, Summon, use new commands, and various other uses. It forms the basis of their skill and ability system. Tifa has been seen using Materia as of Dead Fantasy II, though has lost it all to Hitomi at the end of DFIII. She is known to be carrying the spells: Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Haste, Stop, Barrier, Bio, Darkness, Ultima, and Gravity. :Toward the end of Dead Fantasy V, Hitomi's arm glows with what looks like the White Materia, which Helena shows an interest in. Relationships Cloud Strife :The only person to be shown so far in Dead Fantasy with a previous attachment to Tifa is Cloud Strife. The two grew up next to each other, and grew to become childhood friends. Cloud harbored a childhood crush on Tifa, but he was too shy to tell her, and nothing came of it. Likewise, it is stated that although she has strong feelings for Cloud, she will never admit it. He eventually went off to join SOLDIER in an effort to impress her. It is Tifa who takes him into AVALANCHE years later, and helps him rediscover himself. As of Advent Children, the two of them live together, though their relationship remains ambiguous. In Dead Fantasy, Tifa appears to try to commit suicide in front of Cloud, saying she must help "her". She steps off a cliff, the same one Zack died on years earlier. Cloud tries but fails to stop her. She later wakes up in the setting for Dead Fantasy II. It is hinted Cloud saves Yuna instead of Tifa in DFIV because he 'trusts her' to take care of whatever she needs to. In the original game, Final Fantasy VII, Cloud had promised to help her whenever she was in trouble. It is believed he has followed her into the Dead Fantasy Universe to make sure she is safe. Role in Dead Fantasy DFI :During Dead Fantasy I, Yuna and Rikku are being battered by team Dead or Alive. Toward the end, just as Ayane, Kasumi and Hitomi ready for a final strike and charge them, Tifa (Final Fantasy VII) shows up and rescues her teammates by simultaneously beating back all of the Dead or Alive girls across the platform. Yuna and Rikku recover and join Tifa, who strikes an offensive stance as her materia glows. DFII :Tifa is known to be one of the star players of the Dead Fantasy series, mostly due to her performance in DFII. Firstly, the Dead or Alive girls charge the Final Fantasy girls, only to again be repelled by a series of Tifa's kicks. Her and Kasumi exchange magical attacks, afterward conjuring a wall of sharp ice and hurling Hitomi through it. Tifa grabs Ayane by the head and unleashes a vicious 15-hit combo, sending her flying backward. Afterward Tifa sets up an impressively coordinated three-way attack against the DOA girls using her time magic. Tifa then displays her strength by hurling her teammate Rikku through the air, then withstands a point-blank explosion to the back of her head courtesy of Kasumi. During Kasumi's protecting of Ayane, Tifa jumped up and dealt a jarring blow to her face, the only one capable of penetrating her defenses. : While sliding down the tower Tifa utilizes her lightning materia to duel Ayane, then uses Kasumi's head to break a stone wall with the same Limit Break she uses in the image above. Tifa outmaneuvers Hitomi while on the stone block, backflipping over Hitomi, grabbing her by the waist, then suplexing her upper body straight through the stone they're standing on. Tifa then unleashes a chain of spells onto the trapped Hitomi, who flies back screaming and trailing smoke. Tifa then regroups and casts Haste on her team. Hitomi manages to block Tifa while she's Hasted, but as soon as it wears off, Tifa kicks Hitomi upward, then unleashes Final Heaven. The punch cracks the tower into two, the girls falling down toward the lava below. :The girls land on a stone slab floating atop a bed of lava. Yuna supports a visibly weary Tifa, hurt from the fall and likely having expended too much energy casting spells. Yuna readies an Ether, but soon both her and Rikku fall to the DOA team, at which point Tifa then steps up to reaquire the bottles, flipping over Hitomi and allowing Kasumi's ninja blade to slice the bottle open for her. She then smashes the second bottle across Hitomi's face and beats her down with one arm. She then proceeds to beat the entire team whilst sustaining little damage herself. Even after being nearly knocked into the lava, she runs straight over it and delivers a flaming kick to Rachel's face. :Once Rinoa enters the fray and conjure the Tornado, Tifa is seen firing flaming spells into it at the DOA girls. Inside the tornado Tifa kicks Hitomi to Rinoa, who proceeds to repeatedly body-slam her enemies. After the conjuring of the Lunar Portal, Tifa slams Hitomi down into the one that leads to the site seen in Dead Fantasy III. DFIII : Tifa and Hitomi start their battle off by hitting each other with mirrored blows. First Hitomi kicks down Tifa, then Tifa does the same, only with lightning imbued into her leg. The two go to punch each other, but Tifa gains the advantage after channeling a Fire spell through her arm, sending a wave of fire into Hitomi's face and forcing her to fly back. The whole church structure now set ablaze, Tifa imitates Sephiroth's infamous fire scene. Tifa throws a fire kick at Hitomi, briefly setting her bare arm on fire, then knocks her to the ground. She then throws her into a pillar, but Hitomi vaults off of it, catches Tifa with her legs, and sends her knocking into another pillar, which shatters on impact. After several more blows are exchanged with no combatant outdoing the other, Tifa slams Hitomi with a combination of Poison and Blind, forcing her back. Once Hitomi gains her bearings, Tifa attacks again. Using touch Hitomi counters Tifa's blows, and surprisingly, is able to expel the materia from her body. After knocking Tifa's materia out Hitomi sends her flying out of the church. Tifa gets up and recovers, but she is bleeding. Before her and Hitomi can reengage, Hayate and his ninja clan appear. DFIV :DFIV covers Yuna and Kasumi's battle. Tifa appears only in a brief flashback of Cloud's. In it is the scene where she backs off the cliff. DFV :In DFV, Hayate interrupts Hitomi and Tifa's fight and sends his ninja clan to capture Tifa. Having had all of her materia expelled from her during her fight with Hitomi, Tifa is considerably low on defense and advantages. She is also severely injured due to the previous fight, trailing blood where she walks. She makes an attempt to escape the ninjas by jumping onto a train, to be foiled by her enemies ability to teleport. Tifa makes her final stand in a vacant automobile garage, but is soon slashed and further injured by the ninja's weapons. For defense she seizes a large hydraulic car jack, and begins smashing the ninjas away with it. Hayate's men then ready themselves to shoot Tifa with their bows. While she manages to block the majority, she is still hit. There a flashback occurs where Tifa is about to jump off a cliff while Cloud tries to stop her. Shortly beforehand, she tells Cloud, "Trust me". Directly after this line she jumps off the cliff. She falls and wakes up in the ruins featured in Dead Fantasy II. :The flashback ends, and Tifa finds renewed strength. She forces a pipe through a foe's head, then makes a charge at Hayate, who repels her. Unabashed, she continues to slay his men one after one, then makes a final charge for Hayate again. He teleports out of her reach while his surviving men wrap her limbs and neck with chains. Still she keeps fighting, slinging the men around at the end of their own chains. Finally she rushes for Hayate a final time. He teleports away again, and Tifa collapses behind him, either of an unseen attack, fatigue, or blood loss. :She puts up a good fight, but is ultimately defeated by Hayate himself, after sustaining severe injuries. She is transported by Helena and Hitomi to their headquarters, followed closely by Yuna and Cloud. Hayte carries Tifa out to Helena, who with Hitomi take her on a helicopter and transports her to the city seen at the end. Future *During her battle with the ninjas, a flashback occurs where Tifa is about to jump off a cliff while Cloud tries to stop her. Shortly beforehand, she tells Cloud, "Trust me". Directly after this line she jumps off the cliff. She falls and wakes up in the ruins featured in Dead Fantasy II. Next to her is a feather, Rinoa's motif, leading to fan speculation that Rinoa saved her and transported her to the ruins. *A hidden easter egg appears in DFV during Tifa's flashback. It is impossible to see unless you pause on the black screen flickering. It is assumed these words are a monologue of Tifa's inner voice. They read: "... It´s only after you truly understand love ... That you understand absolute fear ... She needs my help." *It has not been revealed what Helena plans to do with Tifa's unconscious body, though she displays an interest in the materia that Hitomi now possesses. Monty Oum has confirmed that she will return and be "crazy awesome" in future installments. Gallery File:Tifa-in-trouble.png File:Tifa_Hot-.jpg File:Tifa3.jpg File:DVD_VIDEO-0635.jpg Trivia *Tifa was voted as Dead Fantasy's most popular character on the creator's blog. *Tifa makes many allusions to other franchises in her performances. Some in-universe examples include her mimicking Cloud in leaping onto a train to evade soldiers, and more notably for recreating Sephiroth's notorious fire scene in Nibelheim. *In Monty Oum's promotional materials, Tifa has and as-of-yet unexplained scar across her heart. Whether metaphorical or gained sometime during DFV, it has yet to be addressed.Some fans assume the scar to be the one she suffered from Sephiroth after he went insane in Nibelhiem.